Google reports 98 percent adoption rate of Google Instant

Some people love it and some people loathe it, but Google has reported that Google Instant has an adoption rate of 98 percent.

At first you might think this is the rate of satisfaction with Google’s “as you type” search engine, but this is not really the case. The feature is turned on by default for everyone and most people just get on with it, rather than trying to find the opt-out button.

Since most people don’t even know where the opt-out button is, many would presume it simply doesn’t exist and that instant results is the way of things for Google going forward.

Google hides the opt-out button in Settings and then Search Settings. Near the bottom there is an option to “Use Google Instant — predictions and results appear while typing” or “Do not use Google Instant.”

A properly placed opt-out button should probably be on the main search page itself, made visible to the average user. The fact that two percent of Google’s many millions of people have opted out might seem like a small percentage, but it’s not a small number of actual people who’ve figured out that an opt-out exists and where to find it.